By Aubry Buzek Staff writer abuzek@cnjonline.com Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Albuquerque have advanced equipment to monitor weather in eastern New Mexico, but often it is the eyes and ears on the ground that make a difference in reporting time-critical storms and emergencies in the area. The National Weather Service will be in […]

Derek Major Staff writer dmajor@pntonline.com John DeSha, the Portales Public Works director, showed his excitement about the construction of the new wastewater treatment plant on Monday. “It’s one of the biggest things to happen to this city,” DeSha said. The new treatment plant, which is being built where the current one is, has been under […]

Joshua Lucero STAFF WRITER jlucero@pntonline.com The Portales Mainstreet Program is looking to bring more events to Portales after receiving their 2015 Lodger’s Tax funding. Portales Mainstreet Program Executive Director Jan Elliott said the program’s board has received half of the $10,000 in Lodgers Tax funds they asked for. The Lodger’s Tax is a 5% tax […]

Randall Harris was never a great football player. He played in anonymity on Hereford High School’s special teams, and received no invitations to continue playing in college. But he somehow managed to will himself onto the team at Eastern New Mexico University. “I was asked to leave at first,” he said, when he tried to […]

Staff report Former 9th Judicial District Attorney Randall Harris, 54, was discovered dead in his home in the 1300 block of Concord Road early Monday, according to Clovis police. A police spokesman said rescue workers were responding to a call at 2:16 a.m. The spokesman said foul play wasn’t suspected and investigators are awaiting results […]

By Steve Terrell The New Mexican The House Judiciary Committee on Monday gave a unanimous recommendation to a bill that would require lobbyists to disclose more information about their activities, although some members complained that the bill had been drastically watered down from its original form. The sponsor, Rep. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, told the […]

By Milan Simonich The New Mexican Students who attend small private schools without sports programs won’t be allowed to play on athletic teams at public schools, state senators decided Monday. They voted 23-18 to defeat a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Bill Sharer of Farmington. He wanted to open extracurricular activities at public schools to […]

The Roosevelt County Board of Commissioners meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the board room of the Portales Municipal School District L.C. Cozzens Administrative Offices. The following information is on the agenda: • Presentation from Wagner CAT for the lease option of two motor graders — Kendall Terry • Public requests • […]

Portales City Council meets 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Memorial Building Council Chambers, 200 E. 7th Street. The agenda: • A request to authorize renewal of a tower lease agreement with ENMU (Police Repeater). • A request to approve a lease agreement with Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority (ENMWUA) for the Elida pump station. […]

March 3 On this date … • 1973: Eastern New Mexico University presented $200 scholarships to 80 students in different fields during its annual talent day contest. Each university department selected winners on the basis of tests scores. Fourteen Portales students were among the scholarship recipients including Len Markham (history), Gary Watkins (industrial education) and […]

To our readers: “Peanuts” is back. “Shoe,” too. There’s more local news, and it has some bite. And, yes, the newspaper even looks different today. And we’re going to keep tweaking. We can’t please everybody. We know that. But here’s what we can do, at readers’ request: We can offer more variety in our news […]

On this date … 1972: A Human Dignity Commission found no evidence of racial discrimination by Eastern New Mexico University basketball coach Buddy Ball, as alleged by black student athletes. The commission did, however, find “individual instances of violations of the human dignity of several basketball players” and recommended all athletic scholarships that had been […]

By Derek Major Staff writer dmajor@pntonline.com Most weekends, college students stay up late, hanging out at bars or playing video games with friends. But on Friday, about 50 Eastern New Mexico University students stayed up for a good cause. The Associated Students of ENMU held its annual “Up ’til Dawn” fundraiser for the St. Jude […]

Editor’s note: Following is one in a series of features about destinations some consider treasures of the High Plains. Fort Sumner will forever be linked with legendary outlaw Billy the Kid. It was also home to another dark 19th-century event — the forced relocation of thousands of Native Americans in the U.S. government’s attempt to […]

By Kitsana Dounglomchan Local columnist I’ve done 467 skydives in my life, but the one I remember the most is jump 212. It’s hard to forget about a skydive when your main parachute doesn’t work. I was training with my four-man skydiving team in southern California. It was a sunny day with blue skies and […]

By Alisa Boswell Managing editor I hate goodbyes, especially when it’s for a long time. I cried when my parents moved to Florida in 2011, when my sister moved to Washington in 2012 and when my roommate/best friend moved to Texas in 2012 and when she moved even farther away to Indiana. No matter how […]

By Jackie Johnson STAFF WRITER jjohnson@pntonline.com Organizers say a fundraiser coming to Portales this week is the first of its kind in eastern New Mexico. The idea is to add to the bone marrow registry, which matches patients with potential donors across the country. The event is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday […]

By Alisa Boswell Managing editor aboswell@pntonline.com Roosevelt County administrators scheduled several meetings with county officials and commissioners Friday to break the news that the county deficit has increased to $1.3 million. The county deficit, when originally discovered in January, began at $800,000 then was later cut in half by various county departments making cutbacks in […]